Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the most notable being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990.
With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from the band's second album Nevermind (1991), Nirvana entered into the mainstream, bringing along with it a subgenre ofalternative rock called grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden also gained popularity, and as a result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the United States during the early-to-mid-1990s. As Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a generation", with Nirvana the "flagship band" of Generation X. Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention and placed his focus on the band's music, believing the band's message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, challenging the band's audience with its third studio album In Utero (1993).
Nirvana's brief run ended with Cobain's death in April 1994, but the band's popularity continued in the years that followed. In 2002, "You Know You're Right", an unfinished demo from the band's final recording session, topped radio playlists around the world. Since their debut, the band has sold over twenty-five million albums in the US alone, and over fifty million worldwide.
The main sessions for Bleach took place at Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle, Washington, with local producer Jack Endino manning the board. Nirvana began recording with a five hour session on December 24, 1988. The band recorded again on December 29-31, and on January 14 and 24. Ultimately Endino billed the group for 30 hours of recording time. Three of the album's songs–"Floyd the Barber", "Paper Cuts", and the CD-only track "Downer"–were recorded during a previous session at Reciprocal Studios in 1988, featuring Dale Crover on drums. Despite attempts to re-record them with new drummer Chad Channing, the band ultimately decided to remix the versions recorded with Crover for the final version of Bleach. "Big Long Now" was omitted from the album because vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain felt "there was already enough slow heavy stuff on Bleach, and he "didn't want that song to go out", according to Endino. The album was edited and sequenced, but Sub Pop headBruce Pavitt ordered that the album be completely resequenced. The record was further delayed for several months until Sub Pop was able to secure sufficient funds to issue it.
The recording sessions were completed with a cost of $606. Jason Everman, a guitarist who was impressed by the band's demo with Dale Crover, supplied the money. He eventually joined Nirvana as a second guitarist. Everman received a credit on the album sleeve, even though he did not perform on the record. Bassist Krist Novoselic explained, "We just wanted to make him feel at home in the band."
According to Cobain, the music on Bleach conformed with the grunge genre Sub Pop heavily endorsed. "There was this pressure from Sub Pop and the [grunge] scene to play 'rock music'," Cobain said. "Strip it down and make it sound like Aerosmith." Cobain felt he had to fit the expectations of the grunge sound in order to build a fanbase, and so he purposefully suppressed his arty and pop songwriting traits when crafting the record.
Cobain told Spin in 1993 that with Bleach "I didn't give a flying fuck what the lyrics were about," and claimed that eighty percent of the lyrics were written the night before recording. Cobain often was still working on them on the drive to the recording studio. He explained, "It was like I'm pissed off. Don't know what about. Let's just scream negative lyrics, and as long as they're not sexist and don't get too embarrassing it'll be okay. I don't hold any of those lyrics dear to me." Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad noted that nevertheless many of the songs on the album were reflective of Cobain and various incidents in his life. "Mr. Moustache" was inspired by Cobain's dislike of macho behavior, while "School" was a critique of the Seattle music scene, particularly Sub Pop.
Sub Pop pressed the first 1,000 copies on white vinyl, the next 2,000 on black, and all subsequent pressings were on red and blue. The first 3,000 copies of the record came with a poster, featuring Jason Everman. The vinyl pressings omitted "Big Cheese" or "Downer". In the United Kingdom, the record was released on Tupelo Records in June 1989. The first 300 Tupelo copies were pressed on white vinyl; the next 2,000 copies were on dark green. The rest of the Tupelo copies were on black vinyl. The Tupelo copies did contain "Love Buzz", but "Big Cheese" was listed on the label and sleeve instead. They also did not contain "Downer". In Australia, Bleach was released on Waterfront Records and later re-issued on various colored covers and colored vinyl prior to 1992. Sub Pop released a remastered version of the album on CD andcassette in April 1992.
The album's working title was Too Many Humans. It was renamed Bleach after Cobain found an AIDS prevention poster while Nirvana was driving through San Francisco. The poster advised heroin addicts to bleach their needles before use, featuring the slogan "Bleach Your Works."
Tracklisting:
01. Blew
02. Floyd The Barber
03. About A Girl
04. School
05. Love Buzz
06. Paper Cuts
07. Negative Creep
08. Scoff
09. Swap Meet
10. Mr. Moustache
11. Sifting
12. Big Cheese
13. Downer
Personnel:
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